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In the MOTIVATED! article, What It Means To Have Faith, I essentially put out the idea that having faith is to have knowledge. Having information is important because it emboldens you to get results or transition an idea into reality. Information can quite literally be the difference between success and failure. It is therefore important to make sure that you are armed with the requisite data for any venture. With that said, I am going to look at the deeper interplay of success and faith in this post. We will look at what faith is in it’s broader sense and how you can drive yourself to success with it.
My goal here is to help you know with certainty that your dreams can come true. Yes, you have probably heard this before and perhaps have been disappointed because your dreams have still not materialized. I am here to reassure you and this time with more concrete proof that your dreams can be real! Of course, they can be real. For just a moment, as you read, I want you to forget what has happened to you or things that have gone spectacularly wrong or the pain that you harbor for those reasons and bear with me for a bit as I determine to convince you with irrefutable evidence that your ideas can materialize.
Let’s get right into it.
What is faith?
Many people have defined faith as several things. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. While this expresses an aspect of faith, a more rounded and complete definition of faith is provided by Saul of Tarsus who noted:
Now faith is the substance [realization] of things hoped for,
Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)
the evidence [confidence] of things not seen.
Is this statement contradictory? The answer is yes. For one, how can you possibly say you have realized something you hope for while you are still hoping for it? Even worse, who goes into a courtroom and shows invisible evidence? It’s crazy. I know. Nonetheless, that is exactly where faith thrives. How else are you going to convince an investor to give you funds for an idea? The simple truth is that an idea, no matter how good, is invisible, intangible, abstract—you cannot see, hear, feel or touch it without faith! You need faith to sell the idea and the investor needs faith to buy into it. It’s a faith transaction.
Unfortunately, most people haven’t grasped fully what faith is and hence, are unable to take full advantage of it. You need to see that your success, your ability to make your dreams a reality, requires you to have faith. You know what’s interesting? Faith, unlike most things today, is free. Yes, FREE! Anyone can have it.
Realization of hope
This is the first paradox I want us to take a closer look at. When I say, for example, that I hope to become a CEO, it is not the same as being a CEO. Or is it? Obviously, not. However, faith says the two are one and the same. You see, applying faith gives you the opportunity to transcend time and its barriers because with faith, there is no difference between hoping for something and actually realizing it.
Wait there for a moment. Does that mean if I hope to be a doctor, I become a doctor?
Let me use this time to help those of you that may be conflicted about this paradox. I hope to be a doctor does not give you a medical license nor does hoping to be a president get you elected. I hope to be an engineer does not give you the skills and technical know-how for it. You still have to take the steps to get there. You will need to go to medical school, get some experience and practice to get all that.
What faith does is to bridge the gap between now and later. Faith gives you the eyes to see it materialize in the future so you can know with certainty that it is possible. We humans do not like to pursue the impossible. We will do whatever we can to stick to what we know and can see, hear, feel or touch. Faith allows us to achieve the seemingly impossible by helping us to transcend time. With faith, you can go to the end before you actually begin.
Evidence of the invisible
Once you see what the end looks and feels like, you attain invisible evidence. Evidence gives you confidence to pursue the goal and be undeterred by the obstacles that you are bound to face. Have you seen people give up on their way to success because they didn’t know what they were fighting for? I am sure you have heard of many stories like that.
We all need proof that what we want to pursue is actually worth our time. The investor needs it, the people you are leading need it and you need it. Without faith, everything falls apart because there is no end in sight. Though invisible, faith gives you a frame through which you can focus and motivate yourself. In fact, the reason why many people lack motivation to pursue their dreams is because they have no faith—no evidence that says it’s worth it.
Faith makes a difference and having a lot of faith makes a huge difference. So, if you were ever wondering: what do I need to achieve my big dreams and be successful? You have your answer. If you have a small dream, you only need a little faith but if your dreams are big, then you know it—you need a lot of faith.
Benefits of faith
If you were reading closely, you would have probably noticed some of the possible benefits of applying faith. In this section, I will just summarize five things faith can give you.
- Faith precipitates purpose
In chemistry, a precipitate is solid matter that is deposited from a solution. Purpose is very important as much as it is powerful. A strong sense of purpose transforms into a solid conviction and a person with conviction is a dangerous person. Convictions have led many people to do extraordinary things. Some of these things changed the course of history. Take Thomas Edison for example. He and his associates exhausted themselves to develop the light bulb despite several challenges that could have stopped them because they understood what that invention will mean for humanity. Today, every single household uses a modified version of the light bulb that they invented. Also, we can reduce our intercontinental travel times drastically by flying in airplanes thanks to the efforts of the Wright brothers.
To achieve anything significant, you need purpose because it will be the fundamental propellant for your ideas to transition into reality. To precipitate purpose, you need faith. You need to see why what you want to do matters. It is necessary to obtain the invisible evidence that what you want to do actually matters. - Faith produces confidence
Confidence is what you get from evidence. You have probably seen from a TV show or movie the boldness a lawyer gets when he has irrefutable evidence that will convict a criminal and put him away for a long time. Yes, that’s what I mean here. Evidence gives you courage to jump in and go to work on your dreams.
Dreams are very interesting. You see, many people will look at what you are working at and without understanding it, mock you. Oh, they will laugh at you and try to make you feel that what you are doing is worthless or even meaningless. Thankfully, faith gives you the evidence to tell yourself they are wrong and you are right. Now, that confidence is what will take you all the way to success. - Faith makes you determined
Trust me. If you haven’t met faith, you haven’t seen what determination truly looks like. Show me a person who has faith and I can tell you one thing. That person is determined. It won’t matter the obstacles or mountain of challenges that person meets, he will overcome them. Oh, that’s for sure. This person will persevere and endure to stay on course because they have information which perhaps others don’t have. They have evidence of what is behind the barriers. So, it does not matter what comes hard at them, they will press on to reach their goals because it is always before their eyes. - Faith says I’m possible
Faith has a clear language. Where others fail, people of faith succeed. Where people see impossibilities, faith sees possibilities. Faith always says I’m possible and this language and attitude affects everything faith touches including the people who apply themselves to faith. Like Jesus, a famous Rabbi, said: “Everything is possible for one who believes [has faith].” - Faith makes way for love
Love is ultimately service. Love is work. When you love, you act. You don’t stand still because love is doing something for others even when there is no apparent benefit for you. Because of the nature of love, it can be difficult sometimes but when you know for sure, when you have evidence, that your love will yield fruits, you can keep at it even if it costs you everything. Faith always goes where love is and love to where faith abides.
Faith is rewarded
I am going to say three very important things here.
1) Faith is divine.
2) Faith is an interaction.
3) Faith is rewarded.
The most important rewarder in all of the universe is God. These days, many people for several reasons have chosen to refer to him as The Universe. God is divine and has set faith as the fundamental requirement to interact with anything in the universe. Because of this, some people call faith a currency. The point being, you need faith to bring an abstract idea into reality or the cost of the transaction that involves making real the unreal is faith.
Without spending too much time, I will only add this. Ideas are spiritual by nature. You cannot see, hear, feel or touch them. They are not like the cars we drive or the houses we live in. But, they exist. Where? In the spirit realm and to make them visible, you need faith.
God controls both the physical [the things we see with our naked eyes] and the spirit realms and as such has set the rules to govern these realms. Faith is a keystone and anyone who draws on faith, anyone, will be rewarded for their works of faith.
You want to be successful? Put faith to work in your life and see the difference it makes!